I am normally not the non-fiction reader type and I often prefer a good Robin Cook thriller over a self-help or autobiographical book. But this autobiography from one of the greatest CEO’s of all time is such a tremendous yet simple presentation of life that it’s hard to put down. It has pulled me in with its welcoming style of writing. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE could have turned this into a fest of management mantras and self help haven but he chose to present his life as it was and as it is. This book is simply - from the heart, from the gut. It documents the path of success of a man who wanted to put a soul into the giant body that is GE (or General Electric).
More than anything this piece of life (book) gives me hope and that is something hard to come by in this cut throat world of dog eats dog, deadlines and appraisals. There is hope that you can do whatever you want to if you have belief in it. Jack Welch once said that introverts who are in the senior management positions are often the brains of the organization and that gives me hope. He kept at his work and his life, always hoping for the best and when things were down he stuck to his principles and came out shining. I didn’t agree with some of the things that Jack Welch did as CEO but in life there’s always a tradeoff between hard decisions and making everyone happy. I understood that if you are to be at a high position in an organization then the sacrifices from your side are limitless. There are even more pearls of wisdom to be found here but for those not really engrossed by the business world this book may seem lengthy. But in the end this book is about life, hope, sacrifice, hard work and management, peppered with a bit of luck. Read this. You’ll know that everything is possible if it’s straight from the gut.
